


Thinking 'Bout Her

by Kendrickhier



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Earth, F/F, hologram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 22:56:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21216425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kendrickhier/pseuds/Kendrickhier
Summary: General Danvers Week 4: Earthor the one with Astra's hologramWhen Alex comes home, she finds a hologram from a supposedly-dead-Astra with a very important message.





	Thinking 'Bout Her

When Alex arrives home, still pulling out the keys to her apartment door, her eye catches onto a wrapped package in front of it.

She freezes.

She doesn’t remember ordering anything; even if she had there would be an address label, which she can’t find from where she’s standing, which means someone personally delivered this to her.

But who? Kara would have put it inside, or handed it to her in person. Lucy is too far away, and definitely would have wanted to see her face upon unwrapping it. Any of her colleagues could have handed it over in person, which would have been much more convenient. Keeping all that in mind, she can’t imagine this is anything good.

At least she doesn’t hear any ticking from the object.

Carefully, Alex picks it up to examine it, only finding her own name written on the bottom in a pristine handwriting she doesn’t recognize. It’s got a somewhat cylindrical shape, with hexagons at the ends rather than circles. When she runs her fingers over the planes she can feel the detailed ridges that certainly any explosive would have no need for.

Against better judgment she brings it inside with her; it’s not a threat, probably, and she’s gotten morbidly curious about the contents at this point in time. She’s felt this shape before, its weight familiar, but she can’t be sure until she unwraps it.

Temporarily depositing the thing on the counter, she hangs up her coat, stores her keys in the drawer, and gets a cup of coffee running. She eyes the gift (can she call it a gift?) while she waits, contemplating the object in her head.

She knows she recognizes the shape and feel, but she can’t quite put her finger on it. Combine it with the foreign handwriting and she can’t even begin to guess.

She really should have called this in, but part of her – a selfish part – wants to keep it to herself. Suspicious or not, she doesn’t have an actual bad feeling about it, which should count for something, despite not having anything to base this gut feeling on.

The coffee makes itself known to be finished, and Alex doesn’t hesitate to bring it and the package over to the couch, placing the coffee on the tablet and plopping down onto the cushions.

Brown paper is quickly discarded. What is left is a device of Kryptonian origin, and Alex recognizes it immediately; Alura had sent one of those along with Kara’s pod. Except this one is made of a black metal rather than Alura’s silver, though it sports the same designs as far as she can tell.

Would it contain a message for her? Surely.

And so Alex activates it, gasping at the figure that emerges in front of her, behind the coffee table.

Astra.

“Greetings, Alexandra Danvers.”

“Oh hell no,” Alex says immediately, cutting the message off, the composed hologram disappearing from sight. She’d never given the woman her name and she knows Kara hadn’t either; if they had she certainly wouldn’t be using her full name, not like that. Which meant Astra had done her research, somehow.

How did this exist anyway? Astra is dead.

Or was she? How would this have made it onto her doorstep? Who but Astra would want her to see this?

It had to be some kind of trick to psych her out.

But even then, why Astra? Who would know to use Astra against her, specifically?

With a groan, Alex realizes she’ll probably get more answers if she watches the rest of the message. She just really, really would rather not. She’s not sure why the reaction to it is so violent to begin with, but that’s a thing to examine later. Or never. Preferably never.

She turns the device back on, and Astra’s hologram reappears the exact same way she had before.

_Good_, Alex thinks, _that confirms it’s a recording and not some live holocall or whatever._

“Greetings, Alexandra Danvers,” the hologram starts, and Alex takes note of the slight twitch in her arms, which she has clasped behind her back. Was Astra nervous about recording this? “You must be wondering what the meaning of this message is.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” she mutters in spite of herself. It’s not like Astra can hear her.

“First and foremost, I am here to report I am not dead.”

Alex stares at her blankly, processing. Astra is alive? How? They watched her die, Kara led her funeral—oh god, Kara, does Kara know? She should call her—

“I imagine you’re halfway contacting Kara with one of your primitive communication devices, but I request you wait until the end of this message. There is something I wish to tell you, first.”

Phone in hand, she frowns at Astra; is she really so predictable? And why does the hologram suddenly show even more signs of anxiety? What could she possibly have to say? And, for that matter, why would she want to tell Alex she’s alive at all?

“There is no easy way of putting this. No, there is, but it’s not the best way of saying it.” Astra diverts her gaze for the first time during the recording, and she suddenly looks _so small._ “Maybe I should redo this,” she says softly, but after a moment seems to think better of it. “No, it’s better you see this spoken from the heart, rather than some scripted performance.”

Alex’s heart is beating in her throat at this point. There are very few things Astra could be gearing up to tell her, and all of them would undoubtedly flip her world upside-down.

She’s not sure she wants to hear it.

“I—“

In a panic, Alex shuts it off once Astra starts speaking again. _Does_ she want to know? She can always replay the message, it’s not like she’s interrupting Astra herself, but once she knows there is no way to unhear it.

Why is she doubting in the first place? She should hear it; Astra died an enemy, if she is indeed alive she needs any info she can get. She should just get it over with. It doesn’t matter what’s making her doubt, she needs to do this.

Once again Alex starts the message, Astra one again appearing as she had before, and once again greeting her with a “Greetings, Alexandra Danvers.” It was stupid to switch her off before, she’s done nothing but waste time.

“You must be wondering what the meaning of this message is.”

“Sure am,” Alex mutters, cursing herself for her lapse; she’ll have to watch all this again in real time. Honestly, would it have killed the Kryptonians to have included a fast-forward button? Or hell, a resume function, or even a pause button.

“First and foremost, I am here to report that I am—“

“Not dead,” she says along, gesturing impatiently. It won’t make Astra hurry up (though part of her hopes the device has some sort of motion recognition she didn’t discover before), but it helps to temper her own emotions. “Yeah yeah, get on with it.”

Alex is close to losing her mind as the hologram continues, reminding her to watch until the end before contact Kara, and faltering. The fiddling. The talking to herself to keep going, which would be endearing if it wasn’t _keeping her from hearing the rest of the damn message._

And then, finally, she’s back where she left off.

She watches hologram Astra draw a breath, watches her compose herself, watches her begin to speak.

“I—“

Darkness. The hologram disappeared.

“Oh, come on! No! Why?!” Alex practically jumped onto her feet and throws up her hands – better her hands than her coffee mug, or something equally fragile, though she’d really like to throw that instead. Or maybe throw the device, that would work too.

But it quickly becomes evident why the hologram faded. It seems the message wasn’t the only surprise waiting for her tonight. There, in the hologram’s place, stands the woman herself. If she didn’t know any better she’d almost think Astra looked somewhat spooked.

“Astra?”

She straightens immediately, though she fails to compose herself fully. “Hello.”

Alex would be amused, if she hadn’t just cut off… well, herself. “You better explain yourself, or so help me I will actually kill you this time.”

“Yes, I… that’s why I’m here. This,” she picks up her message device, “was a bad idea.”

That only makes her want to know what’s on there more. “So, what? You’re here to keep me from seeing it? How did you even—were you watching me?”

“Yes,” Astra answers plainly, as if that’s completely normal behavior and not something a stalker could get convicted for. Then again, she supposes this _might_ be normal behavior for a Kryptonian on Earth. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t let you watch that any longer.”

She’s got to be kidding. Alex throws her a look that says just that, and it’s the only warning she gets before Alex lunges for her, grabbing for the device.

It is, of course, a futile move.

“Give it to me!” She demands, kept at a distance by a single arm, the Kryptonian grip unyielding no matter how much she flails and tries to escape it. She can almost reach it, is tantalizingly close. “You can’t just let it play up until a revelation and not tell me what it is, Astra, come on! That’s cruel!”

She yelps when Astra yanks her up, feet above the ground, legs flailing for a moment when they can no longer find purchase or anything. “Compose yourself!” Astra orders it, and she find herself obliging. It earns her the return of solid ground beneath her feet. “I am here to tell you _in person_. Don’t make me change my mind.”

Oh. She nods her acknowledgment.

A breath. “The truth is, Alexandra Danvers, I…”

She trails off, seeming to look for the right words to say. Alex is on the edge of her seat, so to speak, and barely remembers she’s supposed to keep breathing. This is it. She’s going to find out what the message is, she’s going to hear what information is about to change everything.

“I like you.”

A beat.

Two beats.

Three.

Astra is looking at her expectantly, while Alex is doing the same. When nothing else follows she frowns. “That’s it? You came all this way to tell me you… like me?”

“Were you expecting something else?”

“Yes! This isn’t news! You already told me this, while being imprisoned mind you, and now you just… repeat that? You were nervous about telling me something I already know?”

“No, that’s not—“

“Then what, Astra? This is the kind of thing you do before some grand declaration, like, I don’t know,” Alex throws up her arms, “saying you love me, or something!”

Her eyebrows raise. “Do you _want_ me to profess my love for you?”

“What—that—it was just an example,” Alex splutters, tips of her ears turning red. She won’t get into this. This isn’t _her_ grand declaration, or at least isn’t supposed to be that. This is supposed to be about what _Astra_ was going to tell her.

“That’s not an answer,” she points out, now the composed one, which _isn’t fair._

“Yeah, well, asking me questions isn’t an answer either, but that’s not stopping you.”

“So… I shouldn’t ask if you want me to tell you you’re the bravest, most honorable human I have ever met? That I admire you not in spite of, but _because_ you defeated me? That you have my gratitude for giving me a second chance I never would have gotten otherwise? That you are the most beautiful being I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on?”

She’s staring. She knows, but she can’t help it; that was a lot. It’s what she anticipated, sort of, but actually hearing it… “Is that really what you think?”

Astra smiles, softly, warmly, entirely unlike anything Alex has seen on her face before. “It is. In fact, do you know what I think?” A questioning hum from Alex prompts her to walk forward, into her personal bubble of space. “I think I am experiencing this thing you humans call ‘having a crush on you’.”

_Astra has a crush on her_. What is she supposed to do with this information? Less than an hour ago she thought the woman was _dead_, yet here she is, alive, and apparently attracted to her. And admitting to it. And Alex…

Well, she’s not appalled.

In fact, she quite likes this. She probably shouldn’t. But she does.

Tentatively, Alex reaches out to her as Astra had done during their first meeting, touching her cheek. It’s soft, as soft as a human’s, as soft as her own. And Astra lets her take her time with this, with getting used to the proximity and exploring, waiting; the ball is in her court now.

And then she kisses her. She kisses Astra and it’s like the air leaves her lungs, the feeling of those soft and warm lips on her own leaving her breathless. Her mind enters a haze.

…

Alex gasps, air filling her lungs, her mind regaining her bearings. Then, she curses. She’s still at the DEO; must have fallen asleep near the end of a long day, seated at her desk. She curses again later, when she does get home.

A very familiar-looking brown package is waiting on her doorstep. 


End file.
